what’s the first step in starting a business | what to open a small business

If you’d rather learn directly from game-changing entrepreneurs themselves, then just tune into the Foundr Podcast, where we speak with entrepreneurs like Gretta Rose van Riel on influencer marketing, or how to become a master networker like Jordan Harbinger.
But that’s also too simple. What about a teapot that only has one review. Even if it’s a 5-star review I can’t show that higher than a teapot with 100 4.9 reviews. Ok, so I weight the rating in some way by the number of reviews.
Want to be sure if your business idea is indeed unique? Run a test and find out. A pilot will give you the confidence you need to take your idea to the next level and mitigate risk. You can start on a small scale by giving away some freebies to a few people in your target audience group to see how they respond.
I’ve known several people who have made money rehabbing apartment buildings and houses. One friend works full time as a stockbroker, another ran a multimillion-dollar employment agency, while the third made rehabbing his full-time business.
Build your own social following and create a personal brand for yourself like Matt Nelson, founder of WeRateDogs has done (thus growing his following to more than 2.8 Million people), and countless opportunities will come your way for turning this side business idea into a full-time business.
It should go without saying that entrepreneurs wear many hats — but “attorney” shouldn’t be one of them. While you will have to get acquainted with the laws and regulations that will impact your business, sometimes it’s important to leave the details to the professionals. Give your business the best chance at success: contact a small business attorney in your area for help.
Television repair is not a dying business. Consumers don’t want to throw out their TVs at the first time of trouble. Furthermore, if you start this business you may want to expand into related businesses such as servicing computer monitors.
At the beginning, the first one is the most important. You may be able to get a great deal if you order 10,000 items, but that would be crazy for a new product you haven’t tried to sell yet. If no-one buys it you’re left paying storage on 10,000 items! I recommend starting with about 500.
If you want to broaden your services and earn more, you can opt to make the entire house look neat and clean with this side business idea. House cleaning services cover carpets, floors, lawns, garages, windows, walls, and roofs, requiring a whole range of cleaning tools. You can hire maids and janitors to do the actual cleaning while you handle sales, administrative and customer service tasks. Or, you can start small by actually getting your hands dirty as a contractor, learning on the job before launching your own cleaning operations with the help of cleaning business management tools like Swept. Beyond that, I’d recommend checking out Cleaning Zoom’s ultimate guide to starting a cleaning business if you plan on taking this business idea seriously.
Although product businesses can lead to super riches, the risk and failure rate is very high. You will almost always be competing against larger national or international firms. If you become successful, other firms will try to duplicate your success. Even if you have a great product, just getting into the distribution channel can be very difficult. Then, if you are successful and are booking lots of profits, you still may be running negative cash flows as you finance growing inventories and receivables.
The world is looking to get fit. While not everyone has the time or inclination to visit the gym or join any fitness classes, the idea of a fitness instructor visiting their houses and helping them get in shape is definitely more appealing to them. So those looking to launch a business in online fitness should spend their money on maintaining a strong online presence through their website and social media pages, considering that they do not have to rent a studio space or equipment.
You only need couple of experience in this business. Just learn the different hair styles and build the confidence to do the haircut, you can start a barber shop in no time. You can start with a set of scissors, razor, comb, and a mirror then that’s it! While you are still new to this kind of business, you might want to offer your service for free as a practice.
Subscribe to industry publications, join relevant associations, set Google alerts for key industry terms and news and follow other industry experts on social media. Absorb yourself in your industry and continually educate yourself on the latest techniques and trends.
Be sure it’s unique. Whatever your idea is, be sure it’s as unique as possible. This will help you eliminate or significantly combat competition, which will make your business more successful. Simply putting a small spin on a currently existing product (making blue Red vines or something like that) is not usually enough to build a business on, so push the envelope!
Janet Attard is the founder of the award-winning Business Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is also the author of The Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with Limited Budgets. Follow Janet on Twitter and on LinkedIn
Cooking classes are a hit among the urban masses because food is something that appeals to everyone. As a professional cook, you can conduct cooking classes both online and offline. For the former, you can either use a platform like YouTube and Facebook or launch your own website to serve the same purpose. For either way, the cost is a bare minimum. For the latter, you can book a studio on the days you wish to conduct the classes, which again works out to be fairly cost-effective, taking the selected number of hours and days into account.
Teaching piano (or guitar or violin or singing) lessons out of your house is a well-established way for stay-at-home spouses to make a little extra cash. If Lois Griffin can do it, so can any musically minded entrepreneur.
Anyone who has ever had the unenviable task of cleaning up a house for sale after the death of the owner knows just how important this job is. Junk removal can be as simple as hauling away unwanted stuff to the dump, or it can be as complicated as separating out the trash from the treasures and handling the actual sale of the goods.

Have strong English skills and exceptional grammar? You may have opportunities to work as a proofreader from home. Advertising for this can be difficult; seek out those who might actually be able to use your services and advertise directly to them.
If your mastery of another language is good enough to have the grammar and spelling down, translating is a great side business idea to set up for yourself and can even be done remotely. Flexjobs has literally hundreds of freelance, remote translator jobs available right now and if you’re looking to land more remote work on the side of your other pursuits, check out my guide—how to get a remote job (this weekend).
The benefit here is that you don’t have to risk buying up stock in a product and losing money if it doesn’t sell. The entry barrier is lower and you don’t have to invest nearly as much to get started.
YouTube is a hotspot for creative and talented individuals looking for great returns with little monetary investment. YouTube allows its users to create independent channels and upload their videos for free. In fact, it even pays some YouTubers whose channels are popular. To know more about how to make money out of your YouTube channel, click here.
Marketing gluten-free products. Companies such as Whole Foods have already picked up on this fast-growing market segment. Is there a way you can combine Page’s #7, online subscription services, with gluten-free products?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to getting a website to rank higher for certain “search terms” in search engines like Google. When a website ranks higher, it gets more relevant traffic and in turn, can make more revenue.
Two of the biggest problems of operating a retail store are the overhead of having a storefront and the risk and cost of carrying inventory. With a virtual consignment store you eliminate both of these problems! You could take it one step further and have your suppliers drop ship the goods for you.
Buying an existing business will, on average, dramatically increase your chances of succeeding in business. But buying and valuing a business is not usually a simple process, and there are plenty of things to watch out for. I have a number of presentations on buying, selling, and valuing businesses.